The Chicago Bears wasted little time rediscovering their rhythm with Caleb Williams back under center, and the passing game looked like it had answers for just about everything the Atlanta Falcons threw at it. Ben Johnson’s offense pushed the right buttons all afternoon, and one of the clearest signs was how intentionally the Bears worked Colston Loveland into the mix.
Williams was sharp from start to finish, completing 30 of 36 passes for 305 yards and a touchdown while spreading the ball around to eight different receivers. But the real headline for Chicago might have been Loveland’s best outing of the season. The second-year tight end turned seven targets into six catches for 65 yards and his first touchdown of the year, a performance that looked less like a one-off and more like the start of something bigger.
That kind of production jumps off the page because it has been rare so far. Sunday was only the second time Loveland cleared 50 receiving yards this season, but there’s context behind that quiet stretch.
With Case Keenum and Tyson Bagent at quarterback, the Bears had to change the way they operated, and Loveland ended up getting squeezed out. That won’t be the case now.
There’s also a familiar pattern here for Chicago fans. Loveland had a slow start as a rookie, too, looking more like a disappointment than a centerpiece early on before finishing as the team’s leader in receiving yards.
He didn’t find the end zone until Week 7, when he scored twice, and that was also the first game in which he topped 40 receiving yards. After that, he produced in all but three games, including a pair of 90-plus-yard performances.
This season came with plenty of noise about Loveland taking over as the top target in Chicago again, but Williams’ extended absence changed the picture. It’s hard to make a clean judgment on the passing game when the quarterback missing most of the season is the one the offense was built around.
The Bears have scored 59, 3, and 31 points in Williams’ three starts, and the Week 2 loss looks like the clear exception. Outside of that outlier, the offense has looked dangerous. The early struggles of Williams’ absence say as much about the confidence in Ben Johnson and the depth of the quarterback room as anything else, but there’s a clear difference between having the intended starter on the field and trying to make do with backups.
Loveland spent that stretch watching other players pile up the numbers. Now that Williams is back, the Bears appear ready to put him back at the center of things. And if Sunday was the preview, the rest of the league may want to pay attention.
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